Slackware Linux 11 was released at the beginning of this month, which marks 13 years of continued development. Slackware Linux, while not the first Linux distribution, is the oldest surviving one, and is starting to show signs of aging. The first version of Slackware Linux was released on July 16, 1993, by Patrick Volkerding. More here.

Now its 10 years later ( doesn't seem that long) while im tempted to install Slack again I'm not sure if I want to deal with the dependancy hell that is modern linux software without a package manager

You know, I think part of the dependency hell is caused by the package manager itself! Imagine this: "needs gnome". Now compare to "needs libfoo, libwhatsitsname-dev, etc"

Everyone who tried to use a minimal selection of packages on the desktop sooner or later ends up with 90% of the same "common base" and I think that's what Slackware is trying to offer. Having said that: more CDs, less work ;-)